India once again looks to regain the golden glory when Lakshya Sen take on reigning world junior champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in the final of the Badminton Asia Junior Championship on Sunday. The 16-year-old shuttler beat local favourite Indonesian fourth seed Ikhsan Leonardo Imanuel Rumbay 21-7, 21-14 in the semi-finals to reach the summit clash after 6 years.

The last time India won the gold in this event was in 2012 when current World No 3 PV Sindhu won the gold in the women’s singles.

Lakshya Sen was in cruise control mode against the Indonesian as he breezed past his rival in the first game 21-7. The second game saw Rumbay putting up better display and not allowing the Indian to run away with the game. At the interval of the second game, Sen took 11-10 lead.

After the interval, it was completely one-way traffic as Sen hardly put a foot wrong as his rival crumbled before conceding the game and the match. Sunday’s final against Vitidsarn will be a tall ask for the Indian. The junior world No 1, beat China’s Yupeng Bai, ranked fourth in the world, in straight games 21-14, 21-12 in the other semi-final.

Going by the current form Vitidsarn has an upper hand as he is currently in great form having won the Dutch Junior, German Junior, Indonesia Junior Grand Prix and Thailand Junior titles. Sen, on the other hand, started his 2018 season only in April after recovering from a shoulder injury.